Since the early 1980s, thousands of patients prone to irregular and sometimes life-threatening heart rhythms have had miniature heart monitors, particularly defibrillators and cardioverters, implanted in their bodies. These devices detect onset of abnormal heart rhythms and automatically apply corrective electrical therapy, specifically one or more bursts of electric current, to hearts. When the bursts of electric current are properly sized and timed, they restore normal heart function without human intervention, sparing patients considerable discomfort and often saving their lives.
The defibrillator or cardioverter includes a set of electrical leads, which extend from a sealed housing into the walls of a heart after implantation. Within the housing are a battery for supplying power, monitoring circuitry for detecting abnormal heart rhythms, and a capacitor for delivering bursts of electric current through the leads to the heart.
The capacitor can take the form of a flat aluminum electrolytic capacitor. Flat capacitors include a stack of flat capacitor elements, with each element including one or more separators between two sheets of aluminum foil. The capacitor elements, each of which has an individual capacitance (or energy-storage capacity) proportional to the surface area of the aluminum foil, are connected together to provide a total capacitance. The stack of capacitor elements is housed within an aluminum capacitor case which is filled with electrolyte.
The capacitor includes one or more metal wires, known as feedthroughs, which connect the capacitor elements to defibrillator or cardioverter circuitry located outside the case. A feedthrough reaches the outside of the case through a hole in the case called a feedthrough hole. After the capacitor elements are assembled within the capacitor case and the feedthrough is inserted through the feedthrough hole, manufacturers insulate the feedthrough from the case and seal the feedthrough hole. This involves, for instance, assembling an insulating sleeve, a nut, a gasket and/or other hardware around the feedthrough wire.
Thus, assembling the feedthrough, insulating the feedthrough, and sealing the feedthrough is a complex, time-consuming process.